E-marketing Basics - Light up Your List - Guest Blog by Dan Ogdon

Today we welcome a new guest blogger to the ACT! by Sage Journal. Dan Ogdon from Swiftpage will be joining us on a regular basis to give us his insights on the many aspects of E-marketing. Today he'll focus on the basics of lighting up your list. Dan, welcome!

An often used tactic for E-marketing involves selecting everyone in your list and blasting a single message to all contacts. While this approach has the potential to be received by a large number of people, you will be left scratching your head why your metrics have not exceeded your projections and worse, why they may be much lower. Your contact list is as diverse as your customer’s business ventures. The list should require the same type of service that won you the business in the first place – something tailored that meets their needs as if they were the only customer.

Now, take a savvy marketer that defines specific target segments within their list, crafts a message directed to each target’s needs and delivers to the target at the time that is most relevant. Yes, this takes some more thought, planning and effort, but the results are blowing away their expectations and their contacts are more engaged than ever.

Only two different messages needed to be drafted and some thought into what defines each target group needed to be established. By simply targeting their message, Marketer B was able to achieve 3 times the revenue than Marketer A, using 70% of the list.

When you are developing your next E-marketing campaign, stop before you even think about your message. Think first of who your message will be sent to and why you are sending it to them, more than just “Well, I haven’t sent an email in a while, better get one together”. Your contacts will thank you with their loyalty, their evangelism of your brand and ultimately their pocketbooks.

Dan, thank you and we look forward to your next blog! Connect with Swiftpage.